GENEX

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 07:20:00 +0000

Facebook patches the Pages Manager bug that made private photos public

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Tue, 28 May 2013 08:36:00 +0000

Facebook has finally patched the critical bug in its Pages Manager app for Android that made images sent via private messages public. The engineers working for the social networking website are now working towards removing the images that were made public on the Pages erroneously.

In an email to Android Police, Facebook Security has confirmed that a fix for the flaw has been released. The patch has been released through the server, so you will not receive an app update on your phone. You can now go about sending private images through messages without the worry of them becoming public.

All patched up now

The guys over at Facebook Security have said that they’re also looking at photos that were made public because of the flaw. Once confirmed, Facebook will be taking the photos down pronto. The mail said that the issue cropped up after a server-side change was made a week ago. This is when grievances started pouring in on the app’s page on Google Play Store as well. Facebook has promised to look into the matter and conduct a review to investigate how all of this happened in order to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

“There's some overlap between security and privacy, and while this may not have been a vulnerability for an attacker to exploit, it's certainly the sort of issue we'd want to know about,” Rory from the Security team wrote.

We put the fix to test with the same methods we used earlier. Unlike last time, the private image I sent to my colleague through my page did not make its way to the wall again. Previously I had put various methods of replying to a fan through the page to test, including the Android Pages Manager app, the iOS one as well as the web. The flaw seemed to be present only in the Android version of the app. You can heave a sigh of relief and go about interacting with your fans using the Andrioid version of Facebook Pages Manager now.

World's most popular blogging platform, WordPress turns 10

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Tue, 28 May 2013 07:14:00 +0000

The open-source blogging platform and content management system (CMS), WordPress is ten years old now. A success story in its own right, WordPress has gone from being a simple blogging platform to an extremely helpful tool for building websites and enabling communication across the web, in the past decade.

Fathered by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little, WordPress started off as a blogging platform b2/cafelog. The service now powers 18 percent of the Internet, thanks to its CMS capabilities. Using WordPress anyone can modify designs and themes on their site as well as add third-party plug-ins.

Happy birthday, WordPress

The service being open source is one of its greatest advantages. One need not seek permission before going about implementing newly developed features. There is no wonder then, that WordPress is the most commonly used CMS.

Mullenweg wrote a little love letter to the platform he created, commemorating ten years of its existence. “You were cute before you became beautiful. Wearing black and white, afraid of color, trying to be so unassuming…You showed the world you were growing up, and how much you cared about design and typography and other platonic ideals. You knew that open source didn’t have to be homely. I stretched myself too thin trying to get you there, and I did a stupid thing to pay for it. I hurt you, but instead of casting me away you held me closer, supported me, gave me another chance,” an emotional Mullenweg wrote.

The platform is now more than just a simple blogging tool or CMS. The service based on PHP and MySQL powers about 60 million websites around the world. It also runs several shopping websites as well as nearly 17 percent of the world's top one million websites.

Here’s to the world’s most popular blogging system. We hope to see you be a part of blogging’s changing face in the next decade or so.

BlackBerry teases Q10 India launch on Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Tue, 28 May 2013 07:01:00 +0000

Excited about BlackBerry 10, but can't switch over to a full touch experience like the BlackBerry Z10? Well here's a touch of happy news. The company is about to launch the BlackBerry Q10 in India soon. BlackBerry teased the imminent entry of the first QWERTY BlackBerry 10 smartphone on Twitter, along with the announcement of a microsite for the phone. The Q10 was unveiled back in January along with the Z10, but has only gone on sale in certain regions since last month.

The Q10 reached pre-order status on online retailers in India and that coupled with BlackBerry’s teasing tweet means the phone is not far from its launch. The pre-order listing says the expected release date is the third week of June.

On pre-order

As for the official price of the phone, we can only guess that it will be close to Rs 40,000. When it was officially launched in the UAE, the phone was being shipped to India for a price of Rs 55,000. The pre-order offer asked for Rs 1000 as payment to book the Q10 and pre-orderers would subsequently be given a discount for that amount when the phone became official.

Such a tease

The BlackBerry Q10 sports a 3.1-inch super AMOLED touchscreen with a 720x720 pixel resolution. So it is a sufficiently dense screen despite the small diagonal size. It also comes with a characteristic BlackBerry QWERTY keypad, which looks as comfortable as any of the company’s previous efforts. It's powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core processor. There is an 8-megapixel rear camera, which is capable of shooting 1080p videos and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera on the smartphone. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 4G and NFC. BlackBerry Q10 also packs in 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and a 2100mAh battery, which should prove plentiful under moderate usage.

Microsoft challenge at Kochi Startup Village from May 29

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Tue, 28 May 2013 05:02:00 +0000

Startup Village, country's first telecom technology incubator, here is set to host from May 29 the regional round of the prestigious BizSpark India Startup Challenge held by Microsoft, an organiser said Monday.

Starts tomorrow

The event is aimed at searching for entrepreneurs with innovative ideas in cloud computing, mobile applications and Windows 8 business applications. This is the first time that Kochi has been selected as one of 10 cities to host the challenge, said an organiser. Winners of the regional rounds will go head-to-head in the national grand finale to be held in Bangalore. The competition offers cash awards totalling $70,000 and non-cash prizes worth $2 million. "Microsoft's choice of Startup Village as the host for the challenge is not just an acknowledgement of the tremendous strides we have made over the past one year, it also heralds the arrival of Kochi on India's entrepreneurial map," said Sijo Kuruvilla George, CEO of Startup Village.

The Microsoft BizSpark India Startup Challenge 2013 is open to people who are 18 years or older, citizens or legal residents in India, and are a part of BizSpark Community.

IANS

Amazon workers in Germany stage strike

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Tue, 28 May 2013 05:01:00 +0000

Amazon's German workers are staging a short-term strike in a push for higher wages.

The ver.di union said Monday employees in Leipzig are walking off the job in a one-day warning strike.

The union is pushing the online retailer to adopt wage agreements similar to those governing retail and mail-order workers, which include Christmas bonuses and extra pay for working nights, Sundays and holidays. The agreements could mean as much as 9,000 euros ($11,700) more annually for Amazon workers.

Worker woes

Amazon says its distribution warehouses in Germany are logistics centers, and employees are already paid on the upper end of what workers in that industry earn.

Ver.di represents some 2,000 workers in Leipzig and 3,300 employees at Amazon's Bad Hersfeld center. They staged a first strike earlier this month.

Associated Press

Robots to drones, Australia eyes high-tech farm help to grow food

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Tue, 28 May 2013 05:01:00 +0000

Moving carefully along a row of apple trees, two of Australia's newest agricultural workers check if the fruit is ripe or the soil needs water or fertilizer. Meet "Mantis" and "Shrimp",agricultural robots being tested to do these tasks and more in a bid to cut costs and improve productivity in Australia's economically vital farm sector, which exported A$39.6 billion ($38.8 billion) of produce in 2012.

Australia is one of the leaders in the field and, with a minimum wage of A$15.96 (Rs 857) per hour and a limited workforce, has a big incentive to use robots and other technology such as unmanned aircraft to improve efficiency.

It hopes to tap fast-growing Asian neighbors, where the swelling ranks of the middle class increasingly want more varied and better quality food from blueberries to beef. "The adoption of new technology is going to be crucial for Australia to maintain its competitiveness in terms of the global agricultural sector," said Luke Matthews, commodities strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. "If we don't adopt new technology, we can give up on these high-flying ambitions of being the food bowl of Asia," he said.

Australia is looking at robotics to help with agriculture (image credit: University of Sydney, The Facebook)

Agriculture now accounts for 2 percent of Australia's gross domestic product, but the government forecasts it could reach 5 percent by 2050. Its growth is particularly important now the once-booming mining sector is slowing.

Australia is the world's second-biggest wheat exporter and arable farmers are already using specialized technology aimed at improving efficiency, including satellite positioning software to allow farmers to map out land and soil to determine optimal inputs. Using such technology to optimize the use of fertilizer can boost profitability at grain farms by 14 percent, according to a study by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.

A robot effortlessly plucking fruit is some way off, though a range of simpler tasks are within reach to add to existing technology such as automatic steering of harvesters. Salah Sukkarieh, Professor of Robotics and Intelligent Systems at the University of Sydney and developer of Mantis and Shrimp, says the next phase aims for robots to do increasingly complex jobs such as watering and ultimately harvesting.

"We have fitted them with a lot of sensors, vision, laser, radar and conductivity sensors - including GPS and thermal sensors," said Sukkarieh, speaking at his laboratory housing a collection of both ground robots and unmanned air vehicles.

The technology could have the biggest application in horticulture, Australia's third-largest agricultural sector with exports of $1.71 billion in the last marketing year, since a fixed farm layout lends itself better to using robots.

Robots and an unmanned air vehicle that are being developed at the University of Sydney had passed field tests at an almond farm in Mildura, Victoria state, said Sukkarieh. Propelled by sets of wheels and about the height of a man, the robots were named after the native Mantis shrimp because of the marine crustacean's 16 different color receptors, capable of detecting up to 12 colors. Humans only have four, three of which pick up colors. This capacity to recognize color already allows the robots to sense whether fruit is ripe.

The data can then be processed by computer algorithms to determine what action the robot should take. This could be to water or apply fertilizer or pesticides, or to sweep and prune vegetation, and eventually the aim is to harvest the crop.

"If tomorrow we got an apple, orange or tomato farmer that wants a robot to go up and down these tree crops reliably and accurately, we can do that within six months to a year," says Sukkarieh. "The question is can we make them more intelligent," he added. Sukkarieh also sees the technology being attached to standard farm vehicles and foresees a fully automated horticulture farm within 10 years.

Australian farmers, who depend on seasonal labor for jobs such as picking fruit and vegetables, said they would welcome high-tech help. "Berry picking by a robot would be difficult but if they could produce a robot, I could make a significant saving," said Allan Dixon, co-owner of the Clyde River Berry Farm in New South Wales, who typically takes on five people every year.

To get enough agricultural workers, Australia allows in some labor from neighboring Pacific island countries and East Timor, as well as using backpackers on temporary work visas. Some fruit farmers remain skeptical though.

"Apples will always need to be harvested by hand, due to their fragile nature. They bruise very easily," said Lucinda Giblett, director at Newton Orchards in Western Australia.
"We see no current opportunities offered by agricultural robots. Even as a pruning device, application is very limited," added Giblett

Further productivity gains will be needed if Australia is to reach its target of being the main food supplier to Asia. A 2011 study by the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics and Sciences said around two-thirds of the increase in the monetary value of agricultural production in the last 50 years in the country was down to gains in productivity

Another survey by the Grains Research and Development Corporation showed 67 percent of respondents in 2011 used auto-steer technology to guide machinery such as harvesters and sprayers, up from 47 percent in 2008.

Obstacles to using more technology remain, however, including the cost of buying or renting equipment and slower growth in research and development spending. Some studies show growth in the use of satellite imagery and soil mapping has stagnated in Australia and the United States in recent years.

Regardless of whether it can meet its targets to supply more food to Asia, Australia is expected to play a big role in global food security by being one of the test beds for new ways to produce food more efficiently in often harsh conditions.

If this technology does take off, the effects will be far reaching in many agrarian markets, including India, where 18.5 per cent of the gross domestic product come from agriculture. The idea of having robots doing the picking and perhaps even the harvesting, will help reduce a considerable amount of stress on the workload. It is also possible, at least in theory, to considerable increase the output of each harvest.

Reuters

Wi-Fi vulnerability found in iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Tue, 28 May 2013 05:00:00 +0000

Mobile phone security is a big concern these days when everyone has a smartphone that they have grown dependent on. According to Help Net Security, Security Expert Raul Siles has revealed an inherent weakness in smartphones that run on Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile operating systems. The weakness exists in the method these devices use to detect and connect to Wi-Fi networks.

According to Siles, every time the Wi-Fi of a device is turned on, the device starts checking through 802.11 probe requests for networks on a periodic basis. The probe requests search for networks on the device's Preferred Network List (PNL), and once an appropriate response is obtained, it tries connecting to the network. In simpler terms, instead of listening for signals, the devices shout out and hope for a network to shout back so that they can connect.

Vulnerabilities in the way Wi-Fi works in these devices could be a problem (Image credit:Getty Images)

Because of how these devices connect to a network, a skilled hacker can create a fake network that can capture a device and manipulate it. This mainly happens because the network discovery process is performed by sending out a generic probe request as an open broadcast with specific requests.

“This situation has been known since 2004; Microsoft fixed it for Windows XP in 2007 and recently in Windows Phone devices but it seems the other mobile device vendors are not as concerned,”says Siles.

The problem was originally acknowledged on Android devices back when the operating system numbered at 2.x (Éclair, Frozen Yoghurt and Gingerbread) and 3.x (Honeycomb), but hasn't been fixed as of yet, despite the OS reaching version 4.x (Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean). The vulnerability also exists in all versions of iOS, and BlacKBerry 7.x. Although, BlackBerry 7 users can resolve the issue by enabling the "SSID broadcasted" option from the advanced Wi-Fi settings of their devices.

“In some cases, there are options that can be changed to avoid this issue but on most devices when a Wi-Fi network is added manually it presents the vulnerable behavior and few users are aware of the security implications” Siles adds.

A car fuelled by social media now a reality

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Tue, 28 May 2013 04:59:00 +0000

Acar running on traditional fuels would be a common thing in today’s world, but a four wheeler powered by social media fuel is some thing new.

A group of students from the Kansas City high school, along with their mentors, have transformed and electrified a Volkswagen car, so that it will only run when it gets mentioned in social media. Backed by Minddrive, an organisation that supports drop-outs by developing an after-school programme, the students have developed this unique vehicle which will be used for their annual road trip.

The team modified a 1967 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia and expects it to run on tweets, Facebook and Instagram shares rather than the conventional petroleum fuel. As described by Cornel Foster, a student at Minddrive, a tweet or a share on social media will send a signal into a box in the car that activates a battery installed, which in turn ignites the engine.

Car powered by social media now a reality

To keep the engine running, the car will have to recognise either the hashtag #MINDDRIVE or mentions at @minddriveorg on Twitter, Facebook likes and shares, Instagram follows and shares, and YouTube video plays, follows and shares.

The car is expected to make its first journey from Kansas City to Washington, D.C. where the students are expected to meet the elected lawmakers and raise awareness about education. Talking about the car, Cornel Foster, a student, said, “It’s designed so that when we stop for charging, if we don’t have enough social fuel the car won’t start again, but it’s not going to leave us stranded on the side of the highway.”

Calling it the "social fuel", we can hope that the car completes its maiden trip to D.C. using its social media presence.

European Union looks into Apple's sales tactics for iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Tue, 28 May 2013 04:59:00 +0000

The European Commission is investigating whether Apple is using anti-competitive iPhone sales tactics and technical restrictions to squeeze out rival smartphone makers from the European market, according to documents seen by the Financial Times (registration required).

A questionnaire sent last week to several European mobile carriers indicates that the Commission is looking into the distribution terms that might favour the US company by ensuring no rival manufacturer can secure a better sales deal, said the newspaper. Apple said its contracts comply with EU laws, the report stated.

Is Apple using unlawful tactics for the iPhone?

“The Commission has information indicating that Apple and Mobile Network Operators have concluded distribution agreements which may potentially lead to the foreclosure of other smartphone manufacturers from the markets,” the questionnaire says.

The inquiry stemmed from private complaints by mobile operators and the fact that the questionnaire is being sent out now means it's still in a preliminary stage. The questionnaire asks whether the Cupertino company is putting pressure on telecom groups and carriers to buy a minimum number of iPhones. It also asks whether there are any restrictions on the use of marketing budgets in relation to iPhones. Other questions delve into clauses in agreements with Apple, which ensure that the company is always equal subsidies and sales terms as OEMs and their smartphones. The questionnaire also asks whether there are any technical or contractual restrictions placed on the iPhone 5, which don’t allow it to be used with 4G networks in Europe.

A formal probe into Apple's practices can only begin once it has been established that Apple was dominant in the EU smartphone market, which may prove hard considering Samsung's stranglehold on the market.

With inputs from Reuters

World's first ethically sourced smartphone up for pre-order

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Tue, 28 May 2013 04:57:00 +0000

The Netherlands-based hardware startup Fairphone has announced that its smartphone is up for pre-orders on its website. In keeping with its philosophy of openness, the company is being transparent with sales figures, and at the time of writing, it has sold 2,725 phones through pre-orders. Pre-orders for the phone will be available for another 17 days and the company needs to achieve 5,000 pre-orders before it can ship them. The phone costs €325, which roughly translates to Rs 23,381. The price includes taxes.

The Fairphone is now up for pre-order

The phone sports a 4.3-inch display with a qHD resolution and runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean out of the box. It is powered by a 1.2GHz MediaTek 6589 quad-core chipset and 1GB of RAM. It has 16GB of internal memory, but there is no mention of a microSD slot. The phone is equipped with an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera. The phone runs on Fairphone's own custom interface, which the company states is as open as the rest of Android. All of this is kept alive by a 2000 mAh battery. The display of the phone is made of Dragontrail Glass, which is said to be durable and scratch-resistant.

Fairphone had originally started back in 2010 as a project that aimed to highlight the use of conflict materials in the construction of electronic devices that everyone uses. Three years later, it has become a full-fledged company that wants to put its knowledge into building a smartphone that has been "ethically sourced", which means that a smartphone that doesn't use conflict materials.

Yahoo's bid for Hulu to be in the range of $600 to $800 million

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Tue, 28 May 2013 04:57:00 +0000

According to numerous sources that spoke to AllthingsD, Yahoo’s bid for the premium video streaming website Hulu will be in the range of $600 million to $800 million.

The logic behind this wide range is simple, as the company has proposed several different prices based on a variety of factors. Some of these factors include the length of the licensing rights for content and how much control the programming companies that are selling Hulu have on their own media. Many other bidders have also included a range to their bid following the same thought process.

What is most interesting though is that the Hulu deal is just one thing that is cooking in the Yahoo pot right now. As reported, it now seems that the company is considering another set of deals in the range of $150 and $200 million for a mobile and a communications company, respectively.

In light of the earlier Tumblr deal last week, which set back Yahoo $1.1. billion in cash, its definite that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is keeping herself busy. The Hulu deal is clearly an attempt to fix Yahoo’s video efforts, which has been lagging for quite a few years now, and make its presence felt in the Youtube dominated environment.

Yahoo's bid for Hulu gets a dollar valuation ranging from $600 to $800 M (image credit:digitaltrends)

According to sources though, the CEO is now focused on Yahoo integrating Tumblr into its roster and other acquisitions. Thus, while the bid is proceeding, the effort is being led by Los Angeles-based Ian Weingarten, who is the VP of corporate development.

As reported earlier, Yahoo is not the only party interested in acquiring Hulu, with the roster including big names like the Time Warner, Directv and the Chernin Group. And while the deadline for the bidding process has passed, there could be more bids coming in the near future.

Another bid which has been reported about earlier was Chernin’s bid, which started in the $500 million range. This could be a point that should be noted, because Chernin was erstwhile COO of News Corp and was integral in the process that saw Hulu being created. This bid could be more of an informed decision based on how well Chernin knows the platform and more importantly, how exactly to maximise it potential.

Disney and News Corp have been seen bickering over how Hulu should be run and how it should be sold for years now. However, it is clear that the three companies (including Comcast, which gave up its management rights) provide for Hulu’s most valuable programming, which largely revolve around television shows from their broadcast networks. And the control of those programmes is the most important point of the negotiations.

Sources close to the deal were reported saying that while Hulu was a nice brand and technology, it’s the content and the amount of control the bidders have on it that really matter. The price that Disney, News Corp and Comcast set on the content is another point that bidders are keeping in mind.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 beats Exynos 5 Octa in leaked benchmarks

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Tue, 28 May 2013 04:56:00 +0000

There have been a lot of rumours and speculations as far as Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 800 chip has been involved. So far, the chip has been shaping up to be one of the most powerful mobile chips in existence, and all the benchmarks we've seen it in prove it. According to PhoneArena, benchmarks for a new smartphone from Pantech have been leaked. The device, dubbed the IM-A880K or IM-A880S, depending on region, seems to be winning out against Samsung's Exynos 5 Octa chips.

The benchmarks show the chip winning out against Exynos 5 Octa phones

The benchmarks show the Snapdragon 800 weilding IM-A880X winning against Exynos 5 Octa chips by a small margin – around 10 percent – but the fact that the margin exists says something about the power of the Snapdragon 800. It is also worth keeping in mind that the Pantech device is probably a prototype, and as of yet, the software probably hasn't been optimised for the hardware yet. We expect the gap between the Exynos 5 Octa and the Snapdragon 800 to grow wider as new benchmarks come up of final versions of the Pantech device.

The mobile chipset market has changed quite a bit since last year. The major technology was shown off earlier this year during CES. We saw new chips unveiled by Nvidia, Qualcomm and Samsung. Samsung showed off the Exynos 5 Octa chip, which can be seen powering the company's flagship smartphone today. Nvidia unveiled the Tegra 4 chip, but has failed to get many manufacturers to adopt it. One of the first devices to run on the chip will probably end up being Nvidia's own Shield handheld gaming device. Qualcomm has showed off the Snadragon 600 and 800. And while devices running on the 800 haven't been seen just yet, we have already seen the power of the Snapdragon 600 in the HTC One.

The billion dollar bazaar – top 10 buyouts of the digital world

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Tue, 28 May 2013 04:55:00 +0000

Getting a leg up in the tech industry can be a highly challenging task. Most big companies invest millions of dollars in R&D and innovation, but also have to keep an eye out on the emerging businesses and startups that can give them an advantage over bitter rivals. This has been the case since time immemorial, but only recently has there been a strong spotlight on Internet buyouts. The reason: Bright startups with good products are becoming increasingly ubiquitous these days thanks to concepts like crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding. This has resulted in a spike in the number of acquisitions recently. That said, the enterprise space has been largely neglected.

Even the likes of Google, Yahoo!, Amazon and Microsoft have had to take the acquisition route to one-up the competition. You may know of the bigger acquisitions that have happened recently, the Facebook-Instagram deal, for instance, but some buyouts slip under the radar. Here’s a rundown of the 10 of the most expensive Internet buyouts in the recent past, complete with our pick for the highest spenders.

Deal – Microsoft acquired Skype in 2011

Value – $8.5 billion

That billion dollar handshake

The story – After pursuing it for months, Redmond, Washington firm Microsoft finally acquired popular VoIP service Skype in October 2011. The deal was finally sealed for a whopping $8.5 billion, after the European Union (EU) gave it its nod – making it one of the priciest buys of that year.

It clearly isn’t the first time that the now massively popular service changed hands. eBay, the popular online auctions destination, had in fact acquired Skype in September 2005. However, it announced in April 2009 that it plans to spin it off in a 2010 IPO. From there, Silver Lake Partners acquired it in 2009. As it stands today, Skype is a division of Microsoft called Microsoft Skype Division. Skype though popular, often finds itself grappling in hot waters owing to the nature of the service.

All in all though, Microsoft seems to have done well for itself by making this purchase.

Deal – Intel acquired McAfee in 2011

Value – $7.68 billion

For better security solutions

The story - The semiconductor chip maker took in McAfee, a noted name in computer security space, for that sum, after almost a year of announcing that a deal was coming. Intel confirmed that it wanted to offer security to emerging technologies.

Deal : Yahoo! acquired Geocities in 1999

Value – $3.57 billion

Picked the third-most visited site in the world in 1999

The story - Geocities, for those who remember it, was really popular back in the day – it was the third-most visited site on the web. A known web hosting service, GeoCities allowed users to pick a "city" in which they would want to place their web pages. These were named after real cities or regions, depending on the content. It got really popular over time, so much so that by 1999 it became the 3rd most visited website in the world.

That year, Yahoo! took it under its fold, and like many other acquisitions, downed the shutters on it in 2009 – you can still log on to the Japanese version of the service. #justsaying.

Deal – Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005

Value – $3.4 billion

Adobe gets flashier!

The story - With this deal, the ubiquitous (irrespective of what Apple says) Flash came under Adobe’s wing. The 2005 deal cost Adobe $3.4 billion. Adobe viewed its deal with Macromedia as a way to fulfill consumers' demands for for making audio and video documents, and images compatible with their handheld devices. The company also received access to the popular animated graphics software that has been making a headway to mobile phones.

Deal – Google acquires DoubleClick in 2008

Value – $3.1 billion

Google goes shopping

The story – After almost a year of announcing its intention of acquiring DoubleClick, Google finally completed the deal in 2008 for $3.1 billion in cash. In fact, roughly a year later, on April 2, 2008, Google said it would cut 300 jobs at DoubleClick, citing organisational redundancies. A few selected employees, it is known, were to be taken into Google, as per position and experience.

Founded in 1995, DoubleClick was a noted name in online advertising industry; it provides Internet ad serving services.

Deal – Google acquired YouTube in 2006

Value – $1.6 billion

...and they lived happily ever after

The story – Yes, the two seemed like they have been with each other forever, but truth is that Google acquired the now massively popular YouTube, back in 2006. The two have remained inseparable ever since. Google paid big money – a good $1.65 billion – to get YouTube, and at the time of finalising the deal, it was the search giant’s largest acquisition. Psst! It is said that Yahoo! was in the bidding race right till the end!

YouTube is the birthplace of the success of the starry Gangnam Style and Kolaveri Di, and is the go-to platform for many of us to discover many cool videos – be it a music album or our favourite show. It boasts of a user base that spans the expanse of the globe. Each year, the site puts out mind boggling numbers for stats; for instance, it now boasts of having over a billion unique visitors and a mind-boggling 4 billion hours of video are viewed each month.

Deal – eBay acquired Paypal in 2002

Value – $1.5 billion

eBay buys PayPal

The story – eBay, the popular auction website, picked PayPal for that price and said it would discontinue its own eBay Payments service by Billpoint. PayPal's services were used by many of eBay's loyal customers and hence, this deal made sense. Today, PayPal is one of the largest online payment/money transfer services.

Deal – Symantec acquired VeriSign’s security business in 2010

Value – $1.28 billion

Veri sure about security

The story – Noted computer security company Symantec paid that sum to acquire VeriSign's identity and authentication businesses – its Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate Services, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Services, the VeriSign Trust Services and the VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP) Authentication Service.

Deal – Yahoo! acquired Tumblr in 2013

Value – $1.1 billion

Yahoo! Tumblr

The story – A quick recap: A mature Yahoo! wanted to be “cool again”, at least that’s what CFO Ken Goldman told the press/whoever (not a speech). Tumblr, one of the coolest places to be in, became the obvious pick for the company, and the deal followed soon after. It wasn’t all smooth though on the user side. Some even started a petition to prevent the sale from happening, while it left some others thinking about switching over to other platform.

The deal has happened and CEO David Karp has promised to not “screw it up”. We’ll wait and watch to see how this one’s faring.

Deal – Amazon acquired Zappos in 2009

Value – $850 million

Creating a mark!

The story – Amazon.com and Zappos.com, two popular online retail entities, came together in a deal amounting to $850 million, in 2009.

Zappos, like Amazon, is a highly customer-friendly unit with a great culture – just the kind of thing the otherwise self-sufficient Amazon would have been looking for.

As part of the deal, Amazon was to purchase all of Zappos' outstanding shares, options and warrants from Zappos for 10 million shares of its common stock. Also, it was to provide $40 million in cash and restricted stock, specifically for the employees at Zappos. The service, though, has seen instances of legal troubles in the past owing to the content found on it.

Deal – Facebook acquires Instagram in 2012

Value – $715.3 million

For a better photos experience

The story – This one seemed to many a marriage made in the proverbial “heaven”. Social networking giant Facebook took budding photo-sharing app Instagram under its wide, wide fold last year. Many took to it as an obvious progression by the social networking giant, since so many users share so many pictures each day on the platform.

When the parties had first agreed to it, the deal was valued at $1 billion. However, around the time of the deal being finalised, Facebook's stock price dropped. Finally, when the deal was closed, its worth was pegged at about $715.3 million – $300 million of it in cash and the rest in stock.

Many ardent users of Instagram did not take to the big change nicely.

Months after the deal came through, Instagram made changes to its Terms of Service to the effect that it gained rights to sell users' photos to third parties without any notification or compensation whatsoever, starting January 16, 2013. Needless to add, the news created quite a noise among users, celebrities, privacy advocates. Instagram was eventually forced to rollback the changes.

Top spenders

Yahoo! wins this one hands down. If you could look at the purchases Yahoo’s made in the years leading to this day, you would agree with us. GeoCities marks the earliest Yahoo! acquisition and Tumblr’s its most recent purchase, and it is said that the company is also bidding for Hulu.com, the international television content website owned by Fox, Disney and Comcast. In the years in between, Yahoo! put the likes of Broadcast.com, Flickr, Right Media, among others, in its shopping basket too.

Who knows? Even as you’re reading this, some new deal may be taking shape, getting ready to change the way you and I have been using some product and service.

Main image and cover image credit: Getty Images

IRCTC site could be capable of booking 7,200 e-tickets/minute soon

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Tue, 28 May 2013 04:38:00 +0000

Getting e-tickets for your next rail trip to your native town may just get less hassling. According to reports, we're looking at interesting times ahead in the e-ticketing sphere, if IRCTC's grand plan materialises.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) reportedly, has revealed its grand plan of making the IRCTC site capable of booking 7,200 e-tickets per minute, in the current fiscal. Just to give you a rough sketch of what we're looking at, currently the site can handle about 1.2 lakh concurrent connections on web servers, and can book about 2,000 tickets per minute. Needless to add, taking this giant leap from 2,000 to 7,200 e-ticket bookings per minute, isn't going to come cheap to the Railways, and they are estimating a cost of about Rs 100 crores.

Will the grand plan materialise? (Image credit: Getty Images

IRCTC MD R K Tandon explained the Railways' plan of action to achieve this target to Railway Minister CP Joshi at a review meeting in the national capital. A power point presentation was made before Joshi, detailing him on their plans to enhance the booking capabilities of the site to 7,200 per minute. In addition to Joshi, the meeting saw Railway Board Chairman Vinay Mittal and CRIS MD Sunil Kumar in attendance too.

Without a doubt, the plan to enhance the site's booking capabilities to this exent is grand, but an official added that upgrading of the website was a continuous process. He added that thanks to the process, average booking per day had risen from 3.67 lakh to 4.15 lakh.

On that note, check out some tips to book an IRCTC Tatkal ticket faster.

News Sources

Is Facebook going to revive Notes?

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Tue, 28 May 2013 04:37:00 +0000

Remember Facebook Notes? The once-important feature of the social networking website has been forgotten and buried inside the folds of the multiple-revamp Timeline design today. However, it looks like Facebook is looking to beef-up the Notes feature to pit it against Tumblr.

Before Yahoo! came in and took over Tumblr, rumours were that Facebook too was eyeing the polished blogging platform. The deal, evidently, did not go through and Yahoo! has been flaunting its newest acquisition ever since. TechCrunch now reports that Facebook could be looking to revive its Notes features in order to soften the blow of not being able to acquire Tumblr.

Up for revival?

Back in March, Facebook had acqi-hired the team from Storylane, a blogging platform. The service has been described by its founders as “the home for personal thoughts and stories that go deeper than a quick Facebook or Twitter update.” The vying for Tumblr and Storylane acqui-hiring seem to drop hints that Facebook is mulling over revamping its Notes feature soon.

Notes were launched back in 2006, with curious users poking it with a stick for a few years to see what exactly it could do. The feature is blogging stripped down to its bare bones. There is no customisation of skin. You can mess around with the fonts, add images and videos, but that’s about it. Consider it to be the long-form of a status update with a few features thrown in.

If Facebook had indeed purchased Tumblr, it would have had a lot more opportunity to merge Notes with the blogging platform in order to boost sharing on the site. Signs do point to the fact that something may be in works as far as Notes are concerned for Facebook, but they’re feeble. The time is ripe – with Tumblr being in the news all over again – for the social networking giant to dip its toes into yet another section of the Internet. Over to you, Facebook.

Make a $125 laptop using a Raspberry Pi and Motorola Atrix dock

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Tue, 28 May 2013 04:35:00 +0000

The Raspberry Pi microcomputer has seen a great deal of use by hardware hackers to kickstart all sorts of creative projects. The microcomputer, which is priced in the range of $25 (Rs 1,300) and $35 (Rs 1,900), is now being used to make a Raspberry Pi-powered laptop. The brain child of developer Eric Chou, the system basically does this by tying in to a Motorola Atrix laptop dock, according to a report by Techcrunch.

While the smartphone that the dock was intended for has been discontinued, Adafruit Industry, one of the companies that are making low-cost solutions around the Raspberry Pi, point out in its “how to” video that the laptop dock can still be picked up through various online outlets. Its Micro USB and Micro HDMI jacks give a clean, pretty straightforward method to make a Pi into a laptop. The video has clear instructions on which connectors to get and how to put them together to plug in the Pi and get the DIY laptop working.

The low-cost platform, according to Chou, who did the costing, will set people back around $125 (Rs 6,900 approx). The developer has also included an optional AirLink Wi-Fi module. The costing also included the cost of the Pi itself. The costing makes this platform cheaper than the build costs for XO "One laptop per child", which cost around $200 (Rs 11,000 approx) to make.

This kind of a platform will be a lot more accessible to individuals and small groups, because the XO has to be ordered by the thousand and the scale generally restricts it to government-backed mass education projects. But with the Pi-powered DIY, as long as users are willing to do some hacking, it is possible for much smaller batches of low-cost laptops to be put together and then put to work in the areas where they are the most needed.

The potential in developing countries for the Raspberry Pi is immense. While the Pi has already seen some use while powering a school computing lab in rural Cameroon, thanks to efforts that were reported by a Belgian volunteer project, the surface has only been scratched so far. While the Raspberry Pi is a good fixed-location learning solution, with a device like the Atrix dock, the portability of the platform can definitely be extended. This in turn will extend the usefulness of the device.

The Raspberry Pi can now be used to make a low-cost laptop using an Atrix dock (image credt: techcrunch)

From what the developer has to say, a Pi-powered laptop need not be limited to a classroom location either. The Atrix dock also contains a battery, ensuring that even without electricity at home, the laptop can offer some hours of use. According to reports, the not-for-profit Raspberry Pi Foundation created the Pi in the hope of getting more U.K. kids learning to code. However, the foundation is also keen to find ways to get more Pis out to developing countries this year, where the need for a low-cost computing solution is even greater.

Pesky callers will be blacklisted if complained against, says TRAI

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Mon, 27 May 2013 10:58:00 +0000

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has been working towards getting rid of the menace of unsolicited calls and SMSes, and that is no secret. Now in a step further in that direction, the body has decided to get down to disconnecting facilities of those subscribers, who are found sending unsolicited communication.

The developments are part of TRAI's Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference (Twelfth Amendment) Regulations, 2013, that it released recently, and it comes into force with immediate effect.

As per the amended regulations, once a valid complaint has been made, the telecom operator shall disconnect all the telecom facilities provided to such a subscriber, after thorough investigation.

Hopefully, no more pesky calls and SMSes (Image credit: Getty Images)

The National Telemarketer Register will include a blacklist for telemarketers and subscribers, wherein the names and addresses of such subscribers and telemarketers shall be taken down. The names included in this list shall not be removed before the completion of two years from the date of entry in the register. As for telemarketers in this list, access providers shall not provide any telecom resource to a telemarketer or subscriber, appearing in the blacklist. Once the names are entered, the agency maintaining the register will share the name and address of such telemarketers or subscribers with all the access providers.

In October last year, the TRAI sought suggestions from mobile operators on ways to tackle the issue of unsolicited messages, and at the time TRAI Chairman Rahul Khullar had given them 15 days to comply. Khullar added that if the mobile operators did not respond within the stipulated time with their suggestions, then TRAI would have to decide on the matter. "I have a practical problem on my hand and I want practical solution," he said.

Unity Engine will support devices running on Tizen

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Mon, 27 May 2013 10:57:00 +0000

The folks behind the Unity engine – Unity Technologies – have announced that the engine will support the Linux-based open source smartphone operating system, Tizen. The company will release deployment tools that will allow developers to make games for smartphones and tablets running on Tizen.

"Unity and Tizen have a lot in common in that they both aim to make the creation and the deployment of games and other apps as easy as possible for developers," said Unity Technologies CEO David Helgason.

The Unity Engine is coming to Tizen

Unity has been making quite a push for development in the mobile scene. Recently, Helgason had announced that the engine will be free to game developers on iOS and Android. According to the company, the decision was made in an attempt to push the "democratisation of game development further than ever before." Earlier, licensing the engine for game development on Android or iOS would cost $800 (approximately Rs 44,376), but it has now been made completely free.

This, of course, is a great move for game developers, especially because of the popularity of the game engine. A wide variety of different games have been made with the engine, ranging from DOS-styled management games like Organ Trail: Director's Cut to turn-based RPG Knights of Pen & Paper and even full-fledged 3D games like Surgeon Simulator 2013.

"We were able to make Unity free for the web and for desktop computers a while ago, but have been dreaming of doing the same for mobile for what seems like forever," said CEO David Helgason. "Mobile games development is possibly the most dynamic and exciting industry in the world, and it's an honour to be able to help so many developers be so successful in fulfilling their visions and in building their businesses."

While the engine is only free for iOS and Android at the moment, the company has hinted that it might make the same move for other mobile platforms, including Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10. With the availability on Tizen, maybe the company will make the engine free for the open source operating system too.

Your Google Hangout images will get automatically saved to your Google+ Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Mon, 27 May 2013 10:57:00 +0000

Ever since Google Talk has been updated to Hangouts, users have been able to send pictures to each other over chat, making it easier to hold conversations that include transfer of images. It has now come to notice that the images you share over these Hangout conversations end up in your Google+ Photos section as a separate album.

If you have transferred images over Hangouts with your family and friends over the last few days after the upgrade, you can simply navigate to the “Photos” section on your Google+ profiles and then to the “Albums” section. Images you’ve shared over Hangouts will be stored here conversation-wise. Even if you click on the photo within the chat box, it will open up a Google+ window in your browser in order to display the larger image.

Images from every conversations are saved

The albums are easy to find and will be titled “Hangout: [Contact’s Name] ● [Your Name]” as default. You can change the title if you wish to. The worrying part is that Google+ will contain image backups from your Hangouts even if you explicitly disable automatic back-up within the Google+ app.

While it’s a great move to store away images you’ve shared over Hangouts for future usage, it looks kind of intrusive to save pictures even when you’ve asked Google to not save chat history. Essentially, Google will not save your text messages, but it will save pictures you’ve shared in the particular conversation.

Thankfully, these Hangout albums are set to private by default, so only you can view the pictures you and your friends have shared. The friend you’re having a conversation with will also be able to view this album, on your profile as well as his.

Even while it is going to be very messy trying to find other albums if you’re a power user, this feature might come in handy if you rely heavily on Google Hangouts for important conversations.

Maxx Mobiles launches AX9Z Race and AX8 Race dual-SIM smartphones

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Mon, 27 May 2013 10:54:00 +0000

Maxx Mobiles has launched two new smartphones – MAXX AX9Z RACE and MAXX AX8 RACE. The MAXX AX9Z RACE smartphone features a 5.3-inch display and is powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz processor. The dual-SIM capable smartphone runs on OS Android v4.1.1 OS (Jelly bean) and is fuelled by a 2300 mAh battery. The phone measures 148.5 x 78 x 10.5 mm and weighs 203 g. The smartphone has been priced at Rs 16,666, but can be purchased from the company's online store for Rs 11,458

Sports an 8MP camera

Here's a quick look at the specs of the MAXX AX9Z RACE smartphone:

5.3-inch capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 960 X 540 pixels
3G, EDGE/GPRS, Wi-Fi
Bluetooth
GPS with A-GPS support for Google Maps
8MP rear camera with auto-focus, LED flash and 2MP front-facing camera
4GB internal memory + microSD support for 32GB more memory
FM Radio

The MAXX AX8 smartphone is also dual-SIM capable and runs Android OS v4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich). The smartphone sports a 5-inch display and is powered by a 1GHz single-core processor. It is powered by a 2300mAh battery. The smartphone measures 147 x 79.4 x 10.2 mm and weighs 198 g. The smartphone has been priced at Rs 9,999, but can be purchased from the company's online store for Rs 8,218.

AX9Z Race smartphone runs ICS!

Here's a quick look at the specs of the MAXX AX8 smartphone:

5-inch display with 480x800 pixels resolution
3G, EDGE/GPRS, Wi-Fi
Bluetooth
GPS with A-GPS for Google Maps
8MP rear camera with LED flash, 2MP front-facing camera
4GB internal storage + microSD support for up to 32GB more memory
FM Radio

Samsung launches entry-level Galaxy Star smartphone in India for Rs 5,240

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Mon, 27 May 2013 10:53:00 +0000

South Korean electronics giant Samsung has launched its entry-level Galaxy Star smartphone in the Indian market. The company has priced this smartphone at Rs 5,240 (MRP).

The Samsung Galaxy Star smartphone runs Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) OS. The smartphone is fuelled by a 1200 mAh battery. It comes with 512 MB RAM and 4GB internal memory.

Runs Jelly Bean

Here’s a quick look at the specs of the Galaxy Star smartphone:

3-inch capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels
2MP camera
Bluetooth 4.0
4GB internal memory + microSD support for 32GB more memory

The Galaxy Star comes bundled with Intelligent Motion UI that maximises smart features for the most responsive, intuitive user experience. For example, shake the device to refresh and update, mute volume by simply flipping device etc. The smartphone also employs Samsung's "Smart Dual SIM" feature, which enables the user to receive calls on one SIM while taking a call from the other, .

The Galaxy Star comes preloaded with ChatOn, Samsung’s cross-platform communication service, and others such as Google Search and Google Now. It is also embedded with the Samsung Apps store.

The Galaxy Star is being launched with a free data offer from Vodafone – 250 MB per month for 2 months .The offer is applicable on Vodafone 2G on purchase of Samsung Galaxy Star till July 31, 2013 .

Announcing the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Star, Mr. Vineet Taneja, Country Head, Samsung Mobile, stated, “In line with our commitment to providing Smartphones to a wider set of consumers , I am happy to announce the launch of Galaxy Star – a device that provides superior value to consumers based on its advanced features , intuitive performance and superior design features. We want more and more feature phone users to upgrade to the Samsung Galaxy Star.”

Microsoft unveils new Sculpt mice with dedicated Windows 8 button

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Mon, 27 May 2013 10:52:00 +0000

After introducing the world to its new operating system Windows 8, Microsoft has turned its attention towards bringing new hardware into the market. The Sculpt Mobile mouse and Sculpt Comfort mouse are the latest addition to the wide range of hardware products that Microsoft has to offer.

The new mouse comes as an answer to the complaints from users of Windows 8 on non-touch devices. The Windows hotkey or the Windows touch tab on the mouse will help you to quickly navigate to the Start screen and access apps faster.

The larger of the two, the Sculpt Comfort mouse is designed for extended use and comfort. The Sculpt Comfort mouse comes with a touch-sensitive blue strip on its thumb region and is called the Windows touch tab. This is expected to make Windows 8 navigation easier with just the touch or swipe of a finger and when pressed it will take the user to the Start Screen.

Microsoft's new Sculpt mice

When on the Start Screen, a downward swipe on the Windows touch tab will reveal all the open apps, on the left side of your screen, making it easier to select. Powered by a pair of AA batteries, one can connect this mouse to the computer using its Bluetooth connection.

If the larger one of the two is meant for an easy and comfortable use, then Sculpt Mobile mouse is meant to be (as the name suggests) used on the go. It is not as big as the Sculpt comfort and the Windows touch tab located on top just behind the scroll wheel could cause discomfort for some users. Though the hotkey is not touch sensitive on the mobile version, it still has the same four-way scroll wheel and the Sculpt Mobile uses an USB transceiver to allow wireless use.

Microsoft has priced the Sculpt Mobile mouse at $29 (Rs 1,617 approx), while the Sculpt Comfort mouse will cost $39 (Rs 2,174 approx) and both will hit stores next month.

Google to build wireless networks across Africa

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Mon, 27 May 2013 10:42:00 +0000

Google intends to finance, build and help operate wireless networks from sub-Saharan Africa to Southeast Asia, hoping to connect people in emerging countries to the Internet, a lading US daily reported.

The news daily cited people familiar with the strategy as saying that the Internet search giant, who has for years’ espoused universal Web access, is employing a patchwork quilt of technologies and holding discussions with regulators from South Africa to Kenya.

Access to the vast trove of information on the Internet, and the tools to make use of it, is considered key to lifting economies up the value chain. But countries are often hampered by the vast sums needed to build infrastructure, thorny regulations or geographical terrain.

To reach its goal, Google, which benefits from more people having access to its search and other Internet services, is lobbying regulators to use airwaves reserved for television broadcasts, which at lower frequencies can pass through buildings and over longer distances, the news daily reported.

It is also working on providing low-cost cellphones and employing balloons or blimps to transmit signals over hundreds of square miles from high altitudes.

The company has already begun several small-scale trials, including in Cape Town, South Africa, where it is using a base station in conjunction with wireless access boxes to broadcast signals over several miles, the newspaper reported.

Chief Executive Larry Page has made no secret of his plans to use his company to work toward broader, non-profit goals. But, Google has declined to comment on its plans.

Reutres

UIDAI launches online identity authentication services

noreply@blogger.com (Avik Debnath) — Mon, 27 May 2013 10:41:00 +0000

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Friday launched three Aadhaar-Enabled services to help citizens authenticate their identity online and announced opening of 300 more permanent enrolment centres. The services that were launched are eKYC (eKnow Your Customer) service, authentication service using Iris, and authentication service using one time pin (OTP).

"This is a transformational initiative and I am sure the Aam Aadmi will start reaping the benefits of the Aadhaar project in the near future," Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, who was present on the occasion, said. The eKYC and other authentication services will help residents avail benefits of Aadhaar-linked services and give both public and private entities an economical, secure and flexible mode of verifying user identity.

Aadhar gets a boost

Aadhaar iris authentication is a process wherein Aadhaar number, along with the resident's Iris Image is submitted to UIDAI's Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) for verification. The service can be availed of by all those who have an Aadhaar number including the old, blind and those who may have undergone cataract surgery.

The OTP service enables Aadhaar-based authentication of all residents who registered a mobile telephone at the time of enrolment or subsequent updation.The authority also announced that around 300 permanent enrolment centres, called Aadhar Kendras, would be established. There is also a plan to increase the number of Aadhaar Kendras to 1,000 by September 2013.These centres will enable enrolment of residents who have missed out during the camps organised by registrars, UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani said.

IANS